A to Z of Jazz

 
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James Morrison
A to Z of Jazz

[ ABC Jazz / 2 CD ]

Release Date: Friday 27 March 2015

Who better to take you on a guided tour of jazz music than James Morrison, one of the finest jazz players of our generation?

Morrison is your host for this panoramic survey across two CDs, with each track introduced by the man himself. He takes you on a journey from Dixieland to Bop, from the Birth of the Blues to Birdland - and from Antonio Carlos Jobim to Joe Zawinul. The album features some of the greatest jazz standards by, among others, Hoagy Carmichael, Fats Waller, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Duke Ellington, as well as lesser-known gems from Spencer Williams, Ray Noble and Dizzy Gillespie.

Morrison, in typically virtuosic style, performs on soprano, alto and tenor saxophone, piano, trumpet and trombone. He's joined by the smooth vocals of Hetty Kate and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under Benjamin Northey.

Recorded live in concert with all the thrill and dynamism that brings, this is a perfect introduction to jazz for the novice and a treat for the connoisseur.

Tracks:

Disc 1
1. Orchestra Tune-Up
2. Basin Street Blues
3. 'Welcome to a journey through jazz...'
4. The Birth Of The Blues
5. 'Next came swing...'
6. Seven Come Eleven
7. 'Of course, jazz isn't just played, it's sung...'
8. Stardust
9. 'Of course these jazz pieces weren't originally written for orchestra...'
10. Honeysuckle Rose
11. 'From the Swing era, things got bigger: the Big Band arrived...'
12. Don't Get Around Much Anymore
13. 'One of the most popular songs that Duke Ellington ever wrote...'
14. Mood Indigo
15. 'No discussion about Big Bands could go by without mentioning the great Count Basie...'
16. Li'l Darlin'
17. 'One of the great trumpeters was William "Cat" Anderson...'
18. El Gato

Disc 2
1. A Night in Tunisia
2. 'With the advent of the Second World War and all the men going off to war...'
3. Cherokee
4. 'Bebop got quite frantic...'
5. All Blues
6. 'We're going to do another piece that was really made famous by Miles...'
7. 'round Midnight
8. Manteca
9. 'Meanwhile Sam Getz had gone to Brazil and met Astrid Gilberto...'
10. Desafinado
11. 'Then of course came the 1970s - things got out of hand...'
12. Chameleon
13. 'Another contributor to that original Bitches Brew album was Joe Zawinul...'
14. Birdland
15. 'Duke Ellington was asked once in an interview, "What is Jazz?"'
16. It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Ain't Got That Swing)